June 13 - 19: facilitated
by Steven Thorne and Phil Chappell
A
Preliminary Reading on Tools and Signs
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The Collected works
of L.S. Vygotsky Volume 4: The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions.
New York; London: Plenum Press, pp 54; 59-63

This article analyzes two viewpoints concerning the relation of agency and culture.
One viewpoint construes agency as a personal trait that operates outside of
culture and is designed to liberate the individual from cultural constraints.
I explore this viewpoint in the work of several eminent cultural psychologists.
I critique it as a regression to asocial individualism which cultural psychology
was designed to correct. I propose an alternative conception of agency as a
cultural phenomenon. Espoused by Durkheim, Marx, Boas, and Bhaskar, this conception
holds that agency depends upon cultural processes for its realization, forms
culture, and has a cultural form. Agency is the active element of culture. Being
a cultural phenomenon means that agency is a historical project which must be
realized through humanizing society.